HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO

by Jiehae Park

Inside the FedEx box are two things: a 100% bona-fide-heart’s-desire-level wish and a suicide note. Hannah tracks the package back to Korea, where her grandmother recently jumped from the roof of the Sunrise Dewdrop Apartment City for Senior Living onto the wrong side of the Demilitarized Zone. Oops.

Inside the FedEx box are two things: a 100% bona-fide-heart’s-desire-level wish and a suicide note. Hannah tracks the package back to Korea, where her grandmother recently jumped from the roof of the Sunrise Dewdrop Apartment City for Senior Living onto the wrong side of the Demilitarized Zone. Oops.

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HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO

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  • Rachael Carnes: HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO

    A provocative — yet charming and accessible — inquiry into race, culture and family, this play has a brilliantly curious title, evoking a kind of gothic cautionary tale. The titular character has a major exam coming up to become a board certified pediatric neurosurgeon — “It’s a very important time for her,” as her father would say — but before she can sit for the test, Hannah learns that there’s trouble back home. Home is South Korea, a place Hannah barely knows. A beautiful play. I was fortunate to see its premiere at at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017.

    A provocative — yet charming and accessible — inquiry into race, culture and family, this play has a brilliantly curious title, evoking a kind of gothic cautionary tale. The titular character has a major exam coming up to become a board certified pediatric neurosurgeon — “It’s a very important time for her,” as her father would say — but before she can sit for the test, Hannah learns that there’s trouble back home. Home is South Korea, a place Hannah barely knows. A beautiful play. I was fortunate to see its premiere at at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017.

  • Caro Asercion: HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO

    Jiehae Park’s “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo” merges the mythic and the modern in a dexterous and syncretic collision of time and space. The play takes on an almost Wonderlandian edge at times, but never to its detriment—Park keeps the story grounded (seamlessly!) through tight, polished characterization and meaningful familial relationships. A keen meditation on the power of folklore, legacy, coping with grief, and searching for a culture that was never quite yours to claim, “Hannah…” is an artfully-structured adventure from start to end to denouement and everywhere in between.

    Jiehae Park’s “Hannah and the Dread Gazebo” merges the mythic and the modern in a dexterous and syncretic collision of time and space. The play takes on an almost Wonderlandian edge at times, but never to its detriment—Park keeps the story grounded (seamlessly!) through tight, polished characterization and meaningful familial relationships. A keen meditation on the power of folklore, legacy, coping with grief, and searching for a culture that was never quite yours to claim, “Hannah…” is an artfully-structured adventure from start to end to denouement and everywhere in between.

  • Eugene O'Neill Theater Center: HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO

    It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Jihae Park and their play Hannah and the Dread Gazebo as a finalist for our 2013 National Playwrights Conference. The play rose through a competitive, anonymous, multileveled selection process that took nearly nine months to execute. As one finalist out of hundreds of submissions, the strength of this play’s writing has allowed this work to prosper in such a competitive selection process.

    It is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's pleasure to recommend Jihae Park and their play Hannah and the Dread Gazebo as a finalist for our 2013 National Playwrights Conference. The play rose through a competitive, anonymous, multileveled selection process that took nearly nine months to execute. As one finalist out of hundreds of submissions, the strength of this play’s writing has allowed this work to prosper in such a competitive selection process.

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Development History

  • Type Workshop, Organization Ashland New Plays Festival Women's Invitational (Grand Prize), Year 2016
  • Type Reading, Organization Williamstown Theater Festival (2015 Weissberger Award winner), Year 2016
  • Type Reading, Organization Local Lab, Year 2015
  • Type Workshop, Organization playwrights realm, Year 2015
  • Type Reading, Organization New Dramatists/Princess Grace Foundation, Year 2014
  • Type Workshop, Organization Ojai Plawrights Conference, Year 2013
  • Type Workshop, Organization Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Year 2013
  • Type Reading, Organization East West Players, Year 2013
  • Type Reading, Organization Torrance Cultural Arts Center, Year 2013
  • Type Reading, Organization Leah Ryan Prize (Leah Ryan FEWW) , Year 2013
  • Type Reading, Organization Abingdon Theatre, Year 2012

Production History

  • Type Professional, Organization oregon shakespeare festival, Year 2017